Mass Distractions & Cultural Decay at Mason Gross Galleries

It’s not too often I have a chance to post about my alma mater at Rutgers, but it’s always nice to be able to tout a moment when they make me proud. Mass Distractions & Cultural Decay at Mason Gross Galleries is one such instance. A politically-themed exhibition curated by Latoya Ruby Frazier about how information is disseminated through artistic practice, the show looks back at one revolution’s children, and forward at another. How has television, magazines, and radio informed the art making practices of artists in second half of the twentieth century? How does the Internet, social media and other digital technologies informed the art practices of today?

Based on a combination of personal recommendations, and compelling images and press release, I’ll be trekking down to New Brunswick, New Jersey this weekend to find out. There’s not much time — the show closes October 22nd — and includes artists such as Clifford Owens, Marc Handelman, Martha Rosler and Ardele Lister. I recommend that anyone else who can do the same.

Some images and press release excerpts below.

Rutgers installation shot

From the press release: Twenty-five years from now another generation of artists that have experienced The War on Terrorism, The USA PATRIOT Act and the Global Debt Crisis, will find themselves in a similar conflict as The Pictures Generation. How will newly developed social network technologies such as youtube, vimeo, myspace, facebook and twitter play a role in the fabric of our social conscience? How will these events be programmed in our cultural-memory? How will information be disseminated through future artistic practices?